Sunday School 2/28/21

Seven senators made classroom visits today; with the House passing the stimulus package, and Dem plans to use reconciliation to get the minimum wage through the Senate being shot down, attention will turn to them, so that's where I'm focusing, too. 

Here are highlights of a few of them, starting with Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), who spoke with George on This Week. Hirono was first.

• She's supportive of anything that will work to get the minimum wage increased, noting that it's mostly essential workers who are earning the $7.25 hourly wage, which she called "poverty level."
• The appropriate response to sexual harassment allegations against my Sonofa Gov is to listen to the people who come forward, "and then to do the appropriate investigation and corroboration of the allegations." The NY AG "would be the independent entity to conduct such an investigation."
• The Biden administration is showing leadership on anti-Asian hate crimes, having issued an executive memorandum requiring the new AG "to work with state and county officials and community groups to prevent and prosecute these kind of hate crimes."

Next? Sen. Portman, who voted to pass the Trump tax cuts and repeal Obamacare via reconciliation, but says trying to do COVID relief that way "would poison the well of bipartisanship." 

• He thinks what Biden should do is "...to start off with more bipartisan measures, so that we don’t poison the well, so that we can continue to work together. And in this case, it would be very easy to get Republican support for a COVID relief package."
• He poo-pooed the idea that Republican voters are in favor of the bill -"if, you know, checks are coming out to people's homes, that's going to be popular, but that doesn't mean that this is the right bill." He gave a list of things in the bill he says are not related to COVID.
• Working together "is not difficult. We can work together on this one and then continue to work together on infrastructure and retirement security and supply chain issues with China and so on. So my hope is that they'll change their mind before this over." 
• He doesn't think Biden has gone far enough on Saudi sanctions vis a vis MBS and Jamal Khashoggi, "although you have to give him credit" for increasing sanctions and travel bans on the people directly responsible for murdering Khashoggi - but he thinks there needs to be something directly targeting MBS. 
• He says former president Trump is "very popular" with the Rs, but policies are more popular - in fact, "there are a number of things we can talk about from a policy perspective that I think will help to move the party forward. And that's where we ought to focus."

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was in the Meet the Press classroom; here are highlights.

• Brown's statement about not waiting for Rs to grow spines but having the Dems show Americans they don't have to "settle for a government that's set up to fail" was not defiant, but prescriptive. 
• He always wants to be bipartisan - he's a Dem in conservative Ohio, after all - and says the COVID bill is a bipartisan plan, will broad support, and "Just because Senate Republicans don't support it doesn't make it partisan." 
• He says " -- it's become a Trump party. It's not a party of reason. It's a party that has turned its back." He referenced Sen. Mitch McConnell doing nothing about COVID relief for months, the Rs failing to raise the minimum wage, and more. 
• He says they'll find a way to solve the problem somehow, noting "The corporate elite, the far-right elite in Washington have blocked it year after year after year after year, and we're going to make it happen."'
• We're not done yet on Saudi Arabia, he says, saying "We need to hold any foreign authoritarian, like the royal family, some of the members of the royal family, we need hold them accountable."

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Chris Coons (D-DE) talked with Dana Bash on CNN's State of the Union. Here are excerpts, with Cassidy up first. 

• He said the Rs "have got to win in two years, we have got to win in four years. If we do that, we will do that by speaking to those issues that are important to the American people." That's more than "putting one person on a pedestal and making that one person our focal point."
• He also said that "CPAC is not the entirety of the Republican Party... we lost the House of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency. No president -- that has not happened in a single four years under a president since Herbert Hoover. "In order to win, they have to listen to all voters, not just the Trump fans. "That is a reality that we have to confront."
• He doesn't think Trump will be the nominee in 2024, and whether or not Trump is fit (Cassidy didn't answer), he said, "The point is, I don't think he is going to be our nominee..."
• He has "no clue" how the COVID bill will come out of the Senate, and that the Rs haven't been involved. He "started laughing" listening to press secretary Jen Psaki saying the Rs have been listened to, saying "that is such a joke."
• Bipartisanship isn't dead, though; he's working with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) on a privacy issue, and, "Republicans remain willing and are working on issues that require bipartisan cooperation. We have done five on a COVID relief package in the past. It could have happened here. They made a conscious decision not to include us."

And, here're excerpts from the interview with Sen. Coons, a close friend of President Biden.

• He hasn't seen the details of Sen. Ron Wyden's Plan B proposal to tax companies that don't pay $15/hour. More importantly, "And if I'm someone who is always willing to negotiate with Republicans, I'm willing to negotiate with Democrats as well." Everyone - Ds and Rs alike - agree the minimum wage is too low, they just need to find a way to agree on a number and a path. 
• As do most Dems, he pointed to polling overwhelming support (76% of all Americans, and 60% of Republicans), so they should listen to the voters. And he's glad to hear Cassidy is still willing to work across the aisle, noting they've done that together in the past.
• He also said ..."Biden and the Democrats in Congress gave several weeks for there to be a serious negotiation that came close to the scope and range of this challenge. The proposals that came forward weren't anything like" what we're up against. "And so, frankly, we're moving ahead with a bill that probably will get no Republican votes in the Senate, but will have broad Republican support in the country."
• He said the Dems shouldn't "throw up the white flag and say, well, there's no way that we can work with Republicans, when this is literally the first major piece of legislation to come through. We will have other chances to pass bold legislation in this Congress, in this year, but we have to give bipartisanship a chance."

Dr. Anthony Fauci made four classroom appearances today (This Week, MTP, FTN and CNN SOTU), so I'm going to leave you on your own for those interviews.

See you around campus. Follow the COVID guidance, please, or I'll have to excuse you from class and assign additional homework. 

Sunday School 12/15/19

Let's talk about impeachment, shall we? 

Making the rounds today: Chairmen Jerry Nadler (House Judiciary Cmte) and Adam Schiff (House Intelligence Cmte) on ABC's This Week; Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) on NBC's Meet the Press; Senators Lindsey Graham (R-Trump) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) on CBS' Face the Nation; Senators Rand Paul (R-KY/Canada) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) on CNN's State of the Union. Let's see how much substance I can fit in today.

From This Week:

• Schiff: It was one thing with the president inviting foreign interference as a candidate, when he couldn't use the power of his office to make it so. It was another when, as president of the United States, he withheld hundreds of millions of dollars to coerce an ally, betray our national security, and try to cheat in the next election. That was not something we could turn away from. But it was one more fact, George, that I think made it inexorable. And that is the fact that it was the day after Bob Mueller testified, the day after Donald Trump felt that he was beyond accountability for his first misconduct, that he was back on the phone, this time with President Zelensky, trying to get that country to help him cheat in the next election.That told me, this president believes he is above the law and accountable to no one, and that this road was necessary. And I think it very much is.

• Nadler: This is a crime in progress against the constitution and against the American democracy. We cannot take the risk  that the next election will be corrupted through foreign interference solicited by the president, which he is clearly trying to do. It goes to the heart of our democracy. It was the heart of what the constitution meant by high crimes and misdemeanors for the president to engage in self-dealing for his own benefit to put himself above the country and to threaten the integrity of our elections, upon which everything else depends. It is a total threat. And we must meet that threat.

• Schiff: I don't think any of us have any question that had Barack Obama engaged in the activity, the conduct which is the subject these articles of impeachment, every one of these Republicans would be voting to impeach him. And you know something, I have to hope to hell, George, if it were Barack Obama, I would vote to impeach him. 

From Meet the Press: 

• Toomey: I think it's appropriate to make sure that the president gets a fair trial here, and I think that's the idea. I think it would be extremely inappropriate to put a bullet in this thing immediately when it comes over. I think we ought to hear what the House impeachment managers have to say, give the president's attorneys an opportunity to make the defense, and then make a decision about whether and to what extent it would go forward from there.

• Coons: The only reason that Speaker Pelosi changed her position and supported moving ahead with an impeachment inquiry was because what Donald Trump is alleged to have done, and all evidence points to him having done it, which is to invite foreign interference in our next election, undermines the very core of our democracy, which is free and fair elections where foreign parties aren't influencing the outcome. If he is ultimately exonerated in the Senate, if the Senate Republican majority refuses to discipline him through impeachment, he will be unbounded. And I am gravely concerned about what else he might do between now and the 2020 election when there are no restrictions on his behavior.

From Face the Nation:

• Graham: Yeah, well, I'd tell the president, if somebody is ready to acquit you, I'd sort of get out of the way. If you start calling the witnesses the president wants and they're are going to start calling Mike Pence, you know, the secretary of State Pompeo, I don't think that's good for the country. I don't think it's good for the Senate. You need 51 votes to get a witness approved. I want to make my decision based on the trial record established in the House as a basis for impeachment. That's just me, one senator. But I think there's a general desire by a lot of senators to not turn this thing into a circus. I understand the president's frustration by being shut out of the house but I need to do what I think is best for the country.

• Durbin: I could just tell you, we-we present the evidence and let the American people follow this trial in the Senate. You know, it isn't a question of political popularity as far as I'm concerned. For the longest time, many of us said which Republican is going to defy the wishes of their political base and come forward and do the right thing for the country? Same thing applies to Democrats. Will we ignore our political base and look at our Constitution? That's what should guide us.

From State of the Union:

• Paul: You know, we have seen the evidence. We're going to hear the evidence repeated, but we're not going to see any new evidence. So I think all of America has seen this. What we have found is, this is a very partisan exercise. There's not going to be any Republicans in the House. In fact, there will be a handful of Democrats who will vote against impeachment in the House. In the Senate, I think all Republicans will vote against the House. And I think two Democrats have a very good chance of voting against impeachment also. So I think what we have seen is, it is just a partisan thing.This is a disagreement. People on the Democrat side don't like President Trump. They don't like his demeanor. And so they have decided to sort of criminalize politics. But I don't think it is a good thing. And I don't think it's a good day for the country. I think it is a sad day, because I hope it doesn't devolve into that every president, like in different parts of Latin America, we either impeach or throw presidents into jail just because we don't like their politics. I think that will really dumb down and destroy the county.

• Brown: I mean, I have very strong feelings about this president. I supported impeachment. He did things that Richard Nixon never did. He solicited a bribe from a foreign leader. But I don't know if it rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, to the level of conviction and removal, until I see the evidence, I hear the prosecution, which is the House managers, until I hear the president's defense. Then you make the decision, based on the evidence. And for the leader of the United States Senate, Mitch McConnell, to say he's coordinating with the White House to make sure he's not convicted and removed is -- I just -- it really is part of this see no evil, hear no evil. It's why I'm so disappointed in my colleagues, this see no evil, hear no evil attitude, that they don't want to look at anything to -- that might disagree with their world view of Republicanism and this president.

• Hurd: The only thing bipartisan about this process is the opposition of impeachment. We're going to have at least two Democrats voting against this.  And my fear is that you weaponize impeachments for political gains in the future, just like now we have budget debates that become weaponized, voting for Supreme Court justices have become weaponized. And, for me, my standard for impeachment has always been a violation of the law. You have 435 folks in the House, 100 senators. That means there's 535 different definitions of impeachment. And I have sat through those hundreds hours of depositions and hearings, and didn't see any evidence presented of bribery and -- or extortion.

I'm going to leave it there, as they say. Coming up in this week's Sunday School Extra Credit, we'll talk about the FBI, and maybe slide a couple of other things in there, too.

See you around campus.